Me, Mona, and Leo
I’m about motivation and feeling good about oneself. I think to feel good about oneself one has to look good. Looking good in current times in the U.S.A. where I live involves losing weight and getting in shape. An observation at any Wal-Mart in the U.S.A. will pretty much confirm this point. In order to honestly evaluate how you really look you have to observe yourself in a picture.
All CDs that I’ve known take a lot of pictures of themselves. I have always wondered about this besides checking on one’s appearance is there also something else going on? I think so. I think it’s a kind of declaration, at least for me this is the case.
I have received many comments about my pictures in drag. For the most part, they have been complementary. Of course, my being well into my eighty-fourth year gives me a favorable margin of assessment. The two most common criticisms are I need to show some leg, and I need to smile.
Sex is always there, and sex sells. Although I have nothing to sell except motivation which I give away. So, it seems showing some leg would be a waste of time.
Moving on to the other most frequent criticism, I need to smile. May I point out I am smiling in most of my photos. I’m just not gawking with my mouth wide open.
Leonardo da Vinci had a view on this open mouth smile business. The most famous painting throughout the world is the smiling Mona Lisa with a closed mouth. da Vinci painted it 500 years ago. Me and Mona are closed mouth gals, I think is a fair statement.
The great mystery around the Mona Lisa painting is who was Mona? The top women suspects are da Vinci’s mother Catarina, or Lisa del Giocondo (also known as Lisa Gherardini), the wife of a wealthy silk merchant.
There are also two male suspects as Mona. A CROSSDRESSING MONA LISA, you ask? Well, a crossdressing Mona Lisa is not all that farfetched.
da Vinci may well have been gay or at least bi. I have not actually met him, so I don’t know for sure. I’m old but not quite that old. However, Florentine court records show that on April 9, 1476 da Vinci was accused of sodomizing one Jacopo Saltarelli, who was sometimes referred to as an artist’s model.
There are two Mona-as-man theories. One speculation is the portrait’s subject is da Vinci’s assistant and rumored lover, Gian Giaco Caprotti. Some also speculate Mona is a self-portrait of da Vinci painted as a woman.
Nobody knows for sure who she was. And, those who did are long gone. All any of us can do is speculate.
I’m going with the model was a crossdresser speculation. Well, I would, wouldn’t I? As to which male it was, I suspect it was old Leon himself that was the model.
da Vinci was also known for wearing bright-colored short tunics. This was something totally out of vogue. This may or may not have been a sexual statement. Perhaps he sweated a lot in the long tunics. He also may have suffered from equinophobia and wore bright colors to be seen by horses and riders.
Not only was da Vinci a painter, he was a sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He certainly was a genius.
It seems geniuses of that time left clues in their work. Sir Francis Bacon another genius who was born forty years after da Vinci died was famous for it. It is speculated Bacon wrote all the Shakespeare works. We do know Bacon was 49 years old when he edited the King James Bible. If you count 49 words from the end and 49 words from the beginning of the 49th psalm you will find his hidden message. Or so the speculation goes.
Hiding code, and objects in paintings and literature seems pretty common for the era. da Vinci appears to have done it also. Modern technology has found letters, numbers, and other objects hidden in the Mona Lisa painting.
da Vinci was a genius who wore bright-colored mini tunics. I’m sure that made a statement. However, painting himself in drag, I think old Leon goes way beyond hiding messages and making a statement. Is this a fifteenth century selfie and is he making an declaration?
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Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender History